Carbon Inequality Kills: the Oxfam Report, Super-Rich, and the Climate Crisis

This is an episode that is probably going to make a lot of you angry. I know it’s making me angry right now.

A few days ago, Oxfam released their latest report called “Carbon Inequality Kills,” and we’ll be talking about that today.

This is a damning report on just how much carbon the billionaires of the world are producing and why it dwarfs any possible emissions you could be producing on your own.

In this episode I share:

• The importance of personal lifestyle changes to combat climate change
• The climate crisis as a collective issue, not an individual fault
• How billionaires contribute disproportionately to global emissions
• The luxury lifestyle items, such as private jets and superyachts, that have massive environmental impacts
• Why investment emissions from the wealthy are even worse than their personal emissions
• The ways that poor communities bear the brunt of climate change
• How much control billionaires have over global companies
• Why policy changes are necessary to regulate luxury emissions and promote transparency in investments
• The power of consumer choices and how they can influence big business to change
• Voting for climate-conscious leaders as crucial for systemic change
• How we have more power than we think to address climate change collectively

More info

You can find the full report from Oxfam here: https://www.oxfam.org.au/2024/10/carbon-inequality-kills-report/

Key Quotes

“50 of the world’s richest billionaires emit more carbon in just 90 minutes that your average person emits over their entire lifetime.”

“If everyone began emitting at the same rate as the world’s richest 10% the world's remaining carbon budget would be depleted in 1.5 years. If we all acted like the top 1% that budget would be used up in less that 5 months.”

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